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Race For The Holocrons: A Closer Look

So while the Rebels took an off day this week, I figured it’s about time we get back to talking about all of the New Yoda Chronicles that’ve come out in the past year! Yeah these Lego specials just can’t help but be an absolute delight to watch. And even though I’m probably the only one to talk about them seriously, I’m glad people actually want to read these to begin with. So thank you for that. So let’s dive in and go deep in the second chapter of the first trilogy of TNYC, Race For The Holocrons!NOTE: Contains spoilers from Episode I, Episode II, Episode III, Episode IV, Episode V, Episode VI, Star Wars Droids, The Padawan Menace, The Empire Strikes Out, and Escape From The Jedi Temple, and TCW episode Wookiee Hunt.

So since we last left our heroes, Yoda and Obi-Wan decided that it’s about time Luke started his holocron training. Luke doesn’t even really know what holocrons are, but he knows he’s gotta go find them. Of course, problem: Vader and his boss want to find them, too, as they have the potential to reveal info valuable to the Empire. So Luke followed the Force to where they reside… Utapau? Well, he’s still figuring out the whole “Force” thing, so you can’t blame him from ending up planets away from where he was supposed to be. Besides, in regards to Tatooine, Ben had told him there was nothing left for him there! I guess he meant in regard to his everyday farm life, not literally. Let’s just cut Young Skywalker some slack here. So as would be expected, Luke and his crew hit a dead-end, as the head ‘pauan has no clue what a holocron is. But the ‘pauan doesn’t miss a beat and offers up some used Clone Wars-era starships to the gang. No clue how the Utapauans managed to keep these vehicles in such good shape, and how it is a bunch of ‘troopers never came over and reclaimed it. Sidious must’ve regarded it all as junk. Leia politely turns down the offer, and Luke, exasperated from his failed search, kicks a pebble over the old vehicles. But apparently there’s another brand of “vehicle” in the pile — BOGA? Or at least a critter the same species as Boga?? I always thought that that giant frilled lizard was one of the coolest creatures in the SW galaxy, and he was a good steed for Obi-Wan back in the day. But apparently… either Boga became feral after years of neglect, or this is an entirely different critter and their species is just naturally wild and unpredictable. Yup the big guy decides pretty quickly to give chase after Luke, Leia, and the droids. Luke whips out his lightsaber and at least partially wounds the fella, but new problem: they’ve run right off the landing platform with their ship. Le sigh, can this day get any better?
Meanwhile, Sidious reiterates his desire to get his grubby little Force-lighting-shocking hands on those ‘crons. Vader’s all “NBD, Master, just need to find that Luke Skywalker punk and he’ll lead me where I need to go!”. And it just so happens that Vader is onto Luke by chasing down the Millenium Falcon. Han and Chewie are enjoying their day about as much as Luke and Leia are right now. A well-planned pull of the brakes and blasters aimed at the TIE seem to have vanquished their foe. But that Darth is a tough cookie and somehow manages to claw his way onto the Falcon’s roof and into the hatch. Yeahhh having Darth Vader show up in your cockpit is probably every Rebel’s worst nightmare. And Vader has some fun and knocks the scoundrels around in the cockpit. But then Vader takes a look around at the ol’ ship and is like “Seriously? This piece of junk is what helped destroy my Death Star?”. Han’s brave and talks back, not without throwing the unfair “pleather pants” name back in Vader’s face. So naturally that gets a red lightsaber all up in Captain Solo’s grill, and he demands to know Luke’s whereabouts. And Han’s snarky response is a perfect transition to the next seen, as Luke is indeed “in a whole in the ground”. Hur hur.
So anyway, they were still falling… Luke was trying to get closer to his comrades and the ship, but you know, gravity isn’t always very cooperative. And then shows up Force Ghost Ben, giving Luke a heart attack for the second time this weekend! Master Kenobi’s about to tell Young Skywalker about the holocrons… but judging by the fact Luke’s falling and a giant green beast is right above them… Obi-Wan makes his message quick, and lets him know the stakes as Vader’s in on the secret too, and the boy needs to get to Tatooine ASAP. And then he ducks outta that mess pretty fast, leaving Luke with a hurried “may the Force be with you”. Knowing that time is of the essence, he’s not gonna sit around and fall for hours; Luke slams his lightsaber into the rock walls and uses the Force to form a giant rope with the debris. Not too shabby for a guy who couldn’t tell Tatooine from Utapau on the map! But just when they thought they’d gotten that lizard off their tails… yeah… he can climb. Luke’s able to Force-bend their rope and snap it like a rubber band, returning them to the landing platform. But Boga here is a fast little booger. So our gang darts for an old Separatist fighter. They would’ve gotten off the ground faster, but while Artoo has no problem trusting strange computers, he doesn’t like syncing into one. Considering all things, it was a Separatist ship, and Artoo knows those guys were nasty. Yus now we know the little droid’s got everything now that we’ve seen his sanitizer extension XD But they’re able to make it offworld without any reptilian hitchhikers, and so, it’s on to Tatooine!
Meanwhile, Vader’s still trying to get Han to spill, but thank goodness for the Corellian’s strong will. It’s only when Luke makes a quick call letting Han know where they’re going that there’s a problem. Yes I think Vader knows the difference between the Dune Sea and Naboo’s Dune Sea Hotel. ‘Cause duh on Naboo everything is soft. *Gets hit with tomato* Heyyy who threw that?! So yeah… anyway, Han and Chewie made a quick getaway into the escape pod. Problem was, this particular escape pod has a launch button outside of it. And Darth had no problem pressing it. #Facepalm
And thus, after having to start the thing a couple of times, Vader’s flying the Falcon off to Tatooine.
Elsewhere on Tatooine itself, the holocrons’ glow has attracted some attention from the locals. And the locals being the Jawas. They be all “UTTINI!” over the loot they’ve dug up. And so it appears the competition for these things has been upped from two to three…
So Luke and his comrades were having a pretty smooth flight at first… and then Wedge Antilles and a bunch of other Rebels mistook them for an Imperial ship (Um… guys, different war! Get your facts straight man!). Luke tried to touch base with Wedge and explain the situation, but they were firing at him, and well… Luke had to fire back. It looks like the other Rebs were OK though so that’s good. Yeesh this would be pretty tragic otherwise…
Ironically, the same thing’s happening to the other Skywalker. It must be so weird having your own TIEs aiming at you. I’m guessing Vader had a little “conversation” (aka Force choke) with the pilots involved afterward. Oh wait… disregard that last sentence; he expertly blew up all the TIEs, so that saves Vader time so he can Force choke other less-than-stellar Imperials! Ha yes, you really could say “there are heroes on both sides” in this situation!
And guess where Han and Chewie ended up? A nice little slimy mudhole called Dagobah! Captain Solo expertly navigates them to a cave for shelter… though yeah this is “THE” cave. They label it “Darkside Cave” here, but whatever you call it… the horrified screaming/roaring they make running out says that they didn’t have too much fun in there. Though one really has to wonder what it is each of them saw. Yikes this just got really deep… y’know I’m gonna do the right thing here and not think too much on this ’cause I don’t want to freak anybody out. But yeah, as soon as they ran out, there stood Yoda. And thus happened one of the happiest reunions ever! I love they still call each other “Yoyo” and “Ian”; ah those were the days, huh? Chewie’s all “Wait… you two know each other? What’d I miss?”. It’s OK, Chewbacca, it happened about the time you got caught in a Trandoshan hunting game with a bunch of Padawans.
Anyway, firsties on Tatooine would be Lord Vader! Who doesn’t watch his step and runs right into Dr. Ezavan and Pondo Baba. But Vader doesn’t bat an eyelash and lightsabers the good doctor’s arm off. I love his response “WHAT?! NOW EVERYONE HAS A LIGHTSABER?!”. Maybe they should consider stopping making such a big deal about people running into them. And maybe consider getting to know people before they judge whether they like them or not 🙂 Luke, Leia, and the droids arrive shortly after, also running into the duo. Thankfully this time, the wanted men make a run for it… right into a closed door. And Luke’s all “What did I do?”. Probably didn’t recognize Pondo Baba with his new arm.
Also, I’d just like to ask why Jar Jar thought it’d be a good idea to take his daughter out to the Mos Eisley Cantina for her birthday. It’s not exactly the most friendly place in the galaxy, and I didn’t think Jar Jar was much of a fan of this planet (“…the sun’s doin’ murder to meesa skin!”). It must be what she wanted, I do guess. But I’m not here to talk about Ex-Rep. Binks’ parenting, I’m here to talk about the race for the holocrons going down here as Vader walks into the Cantina. Also, love the rancor sipping an umbrella drink in the background! XD OK anyway, so Vader was about walk in and show ’em who’s boss, buuuuuuut the droid scanner went off on him. Seriously, does this guy dislike droids so much that he’ll risk locking people out? What happens if you had braces, or fillings, or a metal hip? What about the fact that Pondo Baba must’ve gotten a metal arm?? Duuuude c’mon. But Vader took it well, I think. Force-slammed him into the ceiling. The best part is watching all the happy droids flock in now that the ban’s been lifted; just watch that GOM droid get down! XD
So Luke was trusting his feelings again, using the Force to guide him as he walked through the Mos Eisley streets. And this time, it happened to lead him right to Watto’s place. It always wows me when you see characters meet up like this, even though Luke may never know that Watto was his dad’s former “employer”. But yeah, while Leia and the droids would rather’d leave, Luke’s got his eyes on a fabulous old podracer… the one his dad made, to be exact (seriously isn’t this crazy how it all connects??). Not having any cash on hand, Luke comes up with a different way to seal the deal… something called a Jedi mind trick. Watto’s like “Bro they don’t work on me, mkay?”. And you know, interesting thought here: wouldn’t it still have been fairly dangerous for Luke to have revealed himself a Jedi? Knowing Watto, he could’ve easily sold him out to the Empire to make a quick buck. Thankfully, it seems he doesn’t care too much. And Vader probably wouldn’tve trusted Watto to know that kind of intel anyway and would’ve ignored him. So when Watto’s not impressed with Luke’s mind trick, he gets Leia to join in, claiming she’s a Jedi as well. And boy I bet they were surprised when their mind trick actually worked. On Watto… and Threepio! Daaaaaaang the power of the Chosen One’s kids! And so with that, Luke got the podracer on loan and left Threepio as collateral, and they returned to their mission. And Threepio took the job as a sign-spinner. He’s pretty good for not having a lot of dexterity in those limbs!
And guess what Lord Vader was buying? Luke’s landspeeder! Definitely one of those weird moments as Luke zooms by Vader and they both realize they’re driving each other’s rides. Commence chase scene!
Back on Dagobah, Yoda popped some popcorn for his guests and chatted for a bit about the planet and about Luke. And then Yoda realized that Young Skywalker was in trouble! He sent Han and Chewbacca after him… in, naturally, Yoda’s little starship. Yeah if you thought it was bad when Obi-Wan, Yoda, and R2-D2 were crammed in there, it looks to be even worse for these two.
Yeah it was a normal Jawa shopping trip for Bib Fortuna. But he’s not able to look at those lovely glowy-blue blocks for long, ’cause along came Luke and Vader at full speed! The Jawas closed up shop and vamoosed back to their sandcrawler in about three seconds. Finally the guys came to a stop and decided this needed to be settled with lightsabers. But what they didn’t know, is that their being near that sandcrawler full of holocrons was empowering said ‘crons, like, a lot. Leia takes notice of this and tries to interrupt, but of course these Skywalker boys are a little busy. But yeah, don’t ask me how exactly they did that, but the holocrons actually power up so that the sandcrawler zooms on outta there! Man, those things are so useful… they store Jedi history, lists of Rebellion-centered planets, prove one’s Force-sensitivity, and are a great alternative to fossil fuels! No wonder there’s such a market for them. The ‘crawler goes so fast that it knocks the hoods off of the Jawas and reveals… humans. Normal humans in masks. Well, that explains a lot XD Hehe I love fourth-wall-breaking gags like that. So Vader and Luke, after trading respective vehicles, hit the gas pedal and the chase is back on! Isn’t it funny, in Phantom Menace and the first story arc of the Droids series, that both of these are racing vehicles, both used on desert planet raceways? Craaaazayyyy! And yeah as they’re driving, they’re dueling at the same time. Yeah I think there are rules about that in the Tatooine Drivers’ Manuals. Even so, it’s pretty epic! It reminds me of all the swordfighting on the cars in Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, but, dare I say, a lot more high-stakes.
Oh, Han and Chewie finally landed on Tatooine to help Luke… andddd Luke was long-gone. Just Leia and Artoo hanging out. So the four of them piled back on Yoda’s ship and rejoined the chase themselves.
And the chase goes from being more Crystal Skull to Raiders as the Skywalker boys start catching up to the speeding sandcrawler. Luke and Vader both climb up on top of the vehicle and duel a bit before Vader finally shoves the boy off. Of course, as Vader goes and swims in his holocron loot, he doesn’t realize that Luke’s pulling an “Indy” and is hanging on to the front of the ‘crawler! Luke finally climbs back in and faces down the Darth once more… but Vader has an ace up his dark sleeve; the sandcrawler’s heading through Mos Eisley, and he knows Luke won’t allow innocent lives to get caught in the crossfire. So Luke manages to pull the machine to a stop… just as Vader goes and nabs all the holocrons and makes a run for it. Though Darth didn’t get off entirely easy, as he did get his cape caught and had to cut the thing short before he could get to his shuttle. And Luke turned out to be OK in the midst of the sandcrawler wreckage. Threepio, who nearly got creamed by the vehicle to start with, recognizes the sacrifice Luke made in giving up the holocrons to save him and others. Aw Luke I’m so proud of ya! And Han and the gang finally showed up… and found they missed all the action. Figures.
Obi-Wan and Yoda are proud of Luke as well, but they are definitely aware that they’re in all kinds of trouble with the holocrons in Imperial possession. “…They were our last hope.” “No… there is another… thing… we could do… if we felt like it… or not.” XD And that “thing” happens to involve an old friend… JEK-14! Whose peaceful siesta on Naboo is about to get interrupted. Yessss I have lots of questions now as to why he’s on Naboo, and whether he was there in the first place back in the last chapter. But when your Force-enriched arm starts talkin’, it’s time for the now older JEK to get a move on. Twenty years of retirement is long enough, buddy…! Luke’s about to get some help from an unexpected source 🙂
So yay I can’t get enough of these Lego Star Wars tales! Where they’ll go next, only time will tell, but it’ll be great when we get there! Until next blog…